The Scary Short Stories Blog by award-winning author Andrew Barger (that would be me). It's where I discuss the scariest stories in the supernatural genres. I emphasize classic scary short stories. I also provide insight into the origins of the stories and the authors behind them. Visit AndrewBarger.com to check out my books and to be scared.

Friday, July 20, 2012

Back before there were sparkly vampires with waxed chests and gelled hair, there were the founding fathers of vampirism. These were the early vampires; the horrid bloodsuckers of John Polidori and Robert Sands and Joseph Sheridan le Fanu. The first half of the nineteenth century is a crucial point in the development of the vampire story and I tried to find the best of these stories printed in the English language for that time period. My anthology is The Best Vampire Stories 1800-1849: A Classic Vampire Anthology and these are the stories:

1819 The Vampyre - John Polidori (1795-1821)1822 Wake Not the Dead - Ernst Raupach (1784-1852)1848 The Vampire of the Carpathian Mountains - Alexander Dumas (1802-1870)1839 Strange Event in the Life of Schalken the Painter - Joseph le Fanu (1814-1873) 1826 Pepopukin in Corsica - Arthur Young (1741-1820)1819 The Black Vampyre: A Legend of Saint Domingo - Robert C. Sands (1799-1832)